Bearing Out Natural Selection—Creation Style

A half-polar-bear, half-grizzly-bear hybrid was harvested by Jim Martell on April 16, 2006, in the Northwest Territory of Canada. The locals call this a “Pizzly” or “Grolar.”

DNA tests have confirmed that the father was a grizzly and the mother was a polar bear. This is thought to be the first of its kind to be documented in the wild.

The bear resembles both parents. While it has the thick, off-white fur of a polar bear, the grizzly-like features include a concave profile, long claws, slightly hunched shoulders, and brown patches around the eyes.

Grizzly and polar bears (as well as other bear species) have been interbred in zoos worldwide, successfully producing fertile offspring. The ranges of the grizzly and polar bears in the wild overlap, and their breeding season is similar. This interbreeding certainly does confirm the close relationship of the bear kind. While there are changes within a biblical “kind,” a bear will always bear a bear!

Using a biblical framework, we can understand and explain the existence of all these different bear species.

There are eight known species of bears on the earth: American Black (Ursus americanus), Brown (Ursus arctos), Polar (Ursus maritimus), Asiatic Black (Selenarctos thibetanus), Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), Sloth (Melursus ursinus), Sun (Helarctos malayanus), and Spectacled (Tremarctos ornatos).

Using a biblical framework, we can understand and explain the existence of all these different bear species. It involves the global Flood of Noah about 4,500 years ago.

During the Flood, the oceans were warmed by erupting underwater volcanoes. This warm water would have evaporated, which, in turn, would have lowered the sea levels and caused rain and snow over the earth. Volcanic dust darkened the atmosphere, allowing a buildup of ice and snow and resulting in the beginning of an Ice Age.

Using newly exposed land bridges (e.g., the Bering Strait), the animals could have dispersed after leaving Noah’s Ark and spread across the earth. Dark-coated bears that traveled to the Arctic would not survive as well, and would have eventually died out. Bears with lighter coats would have blended in with the snow and ice, making it easier for them to hunt prey and thus survive in the harsh climate of the north.

As we frequently write on this website, this natural selection is a loss of genetic information. Natural selection is not evolution! As the Scriptures tell us, God created the different kinds to reproduce after their own kind (Genesis 1:24).

References

Polar Bear—Grizzly Hybrid Discovered, www.nationalgeographic.com, May 11, 2006.
Gary Brown, The Great Bear Almanac, The Lyons Press, 1993.
Andrew Lamb, The Pizzly: a polar bear-grizzly bear hybrid explained by the Bible, www.creationontheweb.com, May 16, 2006.